OMG – I’m Going to Croatia!

Well, well, well… it looks like I’ll soon be flying to Croatia!

After I’ve been quite happily ‘stuck’ in Turkey since early February of this year (that makes more than seven months to date), mostly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I am actually finally going to leave amazing, beautiful Turkey (somewhat reluctantly, I must add).

In fact, I fly to Croatia next week on Monday, September 14th !

Croatian National Theater – Zagreb – photo by ruscca on Flickr CC

Why I’m Traveling Now

I’m departing from Turkey to Croatia for two reasons. On the ‘departing’ Turkey aspect, at this point in time I have severely over-stayed my 90-day tourist visa (by more than four months! Eek!) and I’m supposed (required) to leave the country.

As for my selected destination, Croatia, I have a large assignment of luxury hotel reviews and travel guide updates to complete there.

To put it all simply, I’m traveling now because I am required to leave Turkey and, like everyone else, I need to work. So I’ve finally set the travel ball in motion and I will soon be on my way…

If it sounds like I’m not entirely thrilled to be leaving Turkey or to go traveling, that is somewhat correct. I do really love Turkey and could easily stay much longer if allowed.

And with the raging Corona virus in full swing around the globe, I do believe that staying put, moving around as little as possible, is the safest policy right now.

I’ve already concluded from my minimal travels along the Turkish coast in June and July, that traveling during this pandemic is somewhat risky, even if you’re doing your best to stay safe. Not everyone else is behaving safely, and you have to interact with those people while traveling.

So, truth be told, if I wasn’t required to leave Turkey and if I didn’t really need the income, I probably would continue staying here in Turkey….probably until some solution is reached for containing Covid-19, like a vaccine and/or medications to effectively treat people who catch the virus.

However, as it stands, I do need to leave Turkey. And I do need to earn some money. So off I go.

Why Croatia…

Despite my hesitation to travel right now and my reluctance to leave Turkey, I can also truthfully say that I’m quite excited to start traveling again and, in particular, to explore Croatia. I’ve been preparing for my trip and the whole country looks stunning.

Croatia was actually my original destination after Turkey, before the whole Corona virus pandemic changed everything. I was scheduled to fly to Croatia in early May and spend two months there visiting several dozen luxury hotels and updating three guides to Croatia.

So right now I’m actually just picking up on my original 2020 travel plans, four months later.

Croatian coast – photo by Tejvanphotos on Flickr CC

Brief Introduction to Croatia

For anyone not familiar with rather remote Croatia, here’s a quick introduction…

Croatia is a small Eastern European country situated on the Balkan peninsula and lying along the Adriatic Sea, just across the narrow sea from Italy.

Croatia is applauded everywhere as being absolutely gorgeous. It’s an extremely popular summer holiday destination for Europeans. And every traveler I’ve ever met who has visited Croatia has raved about its stunning beauty.

The country is especially famous for its long, beautiful coastline along the clear turquoise-hued Adriatic Sea. And it’s just across the long, narrow sea from Italy.

Croatia’s long, long coast is studded with more than 1000 pretty off-shore islands, hundreds of quaint pebble beaches and stately historic predominantly-stone towns.

The country’s interior natural landscapes are also jaw-dropping, especially the crazy multi-tiered waterfalls. And the capital city, Zagreb, in the north is packed with gorgeous historic European buildings, plazas and museums.

I’m pretty psyched to finally have the chance to explore Croatia at long last.

Lash at Casa Velas Resort

My Hotel Work in Croatia

Quite luckily for me during this pandemic, my income situation has been fine up to this point. Early in the year I had a modest hotel review assignment in Cyprus followed by a huge assignment in Turkey. Income from that work has lasted me up until recently.

On top of that, I’ve surprisingly had a good influx of advertisers for my travel blog in recent months. My dad also generously donated his US stimulus check money to me since I never received mine (no doubt stolen by Trump).

At this point, I have enough income to last me another two months. But then that’s it.

Quite luckily for me, my original Croatia assignment is still in the company’s budget. That will give me another two months of income as well as the chance to explore gorgeous Croatia.

And with all that I can make it through the end of the year. Whew.

So for financial reasons I will take on this Croatia assignment. I’ll be visiting 35 awesome luxury hotels, scattered around the country. I’ll also be updating three Croatia travel guides- for Croatia, Split and Dubrovnik.

All of that work will keep me very busy. But I’ll make sure to explore the destinations I visit as well.

Reasons to Not Visit Croatia Now

My only real hesitation in going to Croatia right now is the Corona Virus risk.

Soon after I learned that Croatia had opened its borders to all and kindry, including Americans and Brits in early July, I quickly decided that I absolutely would not go to Croatia during their high tourist season- July and August.

To me that looked clearly like a new pandemic wave in the making. On top of that, Croatia is broiling hot, extremely expensive and very crowded in summer months.

So, despite potentially pushing the boundaries on my Turkish visa over-stay, I decided to wait until September and to keep an eye on the Covid situation in Croatia during August.

Sure enough, there’s been a huge spike in cases there in July and August, with a particularly high escalation since mid-August. As a result, there are travel warnings issued against visiting Croatia by several European countries, including UK, Austria and Italy.

I’m hoping that by waiting until mid September to arrive in Croatia that I’ll miss the big crowds and the most risky Covid-19 situations. Fingers crossed!

Despite the potential risk, I am still heading to Croatia because of…

Coastline and Konyaalti Beach in Antalya

Severely Over-staying my Turkish Visa

Getting ‘Stuck’ in Turkey for Covid-19 Lock-down

As I pointed out above, I’ve been in Turkey since early February, over seven months now. I’ve experienced the entire unfolding of the global Covid-19 pandemic here in Turkey.

After arriving in Istanbul in early February, intending to stay 90 days, I proceeded with my explorations of the vast country. But in late March I wound up being happily ‘stuck’ in Antalya during a 10-week lock-down, of which I’ve written several articles about.

As I mentioned above, my original travel plans for 2020 before the Covid pandemic struck was to exploring Turkey for three months then fly to Croatia in early May. I already had my flight booked to Dubrovnik, in fact.

But obviously in May my flight to Croatia was cancelled due to Covid-19 lock-down, border closures and flight cancellations. I also had to cancel one week of accommodation in Dubrovnik.

Meanwhile, back in Turkey, in early June the lock-down measures in Turkey were rolled back and soon after that Turkey opened its international borders to visitors.

Since then I’ve more or less been waiting for neighboring countries’ borders to re-open, while exploring Turkey’s stunning Turquoise Coast on the Mediterranean Sea.

picnic-ing in the forest during a cycling trip near Antalya

Overstaying my Turkish Visa and Waiting for Borders to Open

At this point I’ve over-stayed my 90-day e-visa by almost four months. Yikes!

Quite luckily for me, the Turkish government has taken a very lenient, empathetic stance towards travelers who’ve been forced to over-stay their tourist visas due to Covid-19.

Originally, they announced that they would not penalize any visitors for over-staying their visas because of Corona Virus. They later modified that to state that tourists over-staying their visas had one month to depart from the time international borders re-opened.

Since June I’ve been keeping my eye on the corona virus situation in Croatia and several nearby countries, as well as their border re-opening announcements. In particular, I’ve been watching the EU Council announcements about their recommended gradual re-opening strategies for member EU countries.

On July 1, EU countries opened their borders to member EU countries plus 15 non-EU countries around the globe that have low corona virus counts, aka who’ve handled the pandemic as well as, or better than, EU countries.

Not surprisingly, the USA was completely excluded from entering any EU countries. Turkey was also excluded from entering EU countries.

Saklikent Gorge 6 So that left me out of visiting any European countries on two counts: coming from Turkey and being a US citizen. It looked like I’d be staying in Turkey several months longer, which was perfectly fine by me.

However, much to my astonishment, in early July Croatia defied the EU recommendations and opened their borders to ALL countries, in anticipation of their extremely important summer tourist season, which accounts for a huge chunk of Croatia’s national income.

Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly in July, I was legally allowed to go to Croatia! In fact, I suddenly became legally required to leave Turkey.

A fact made even more amazing because that was the exact country I had originally planned to visit after Turkey, and for which I had a cancelled flight & accommodation (I can use that info as proof to Turkish immigration when I depart that I had intended to leave before my visa expired).

Departing Turkey with a Visa Over-stay

At this point, I may or may not be fined when I depart. I’ve checked into this directly at two immigration offices in Turkey and the conclusion is that nothing is really clear. It seems to depend on which immigration officer I happen to deal with at the airport on my departure (and perhaps how well I can argue my case for over-staying and my intentions to leave in a timely manner).

But one thing is sure – the longer I continue staying in Turkey, the longer I over-stay this visa, and the more chance that I’ll be fined (and with a higher fine), or possibly barred from re-entering Turkey for some length of time, and possibly even receive a black stamp in my passport (which would be really bad for a full time traveler! Yikes).

So my best bet to avoid fines, or lower fines, and potentially other penalties, is to leave Turkey asap. So off I go to Croatia.

I’ll be writing and posting photos about my travels around Croatia starting soon…so stay tuned for more travel adventures.

You might also like:

My Plan to Stay Safe while Traveling During Covid-19 Pandemic

Update on Staying Safe While Traveling During Covid-19

My 10 Best Experiences in Turkey

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